Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Trial in the US: 2,300 Deaths Reported

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as reported by *Antara*, Indonesia will receive approximately 2.8 million doses of the Moderna vaccine from the United States (US) on Friday (March 11).

The Ministry of Health has designated the Moderna vaccine as one of the booster regimens for the Covid-19 vaccination program used in Indonesia.

However, considering the results of testing in the US, the use of this mRNA-based vaccine is not without risk.

Thousands of people in the US have experienced serious side effects, even death, after receiving the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.

This was revealed in a research report titled "Safety of mRNA vaccines administered during the initial 6 months of the US Covid-19 vaccination programme," published in the global medical journal *The Lancet* on Monday (March 7).

According to the study, during the period from December 2020 to June 2021, approximately 131 million doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine were distributed in the US.

From that total, the US government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) recorded approximately 175,000 reported side effects from recipients of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.

The details of the side effects or Post-Immunization Adverse Events (PIAE) of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine (mRNA-1273) recorded in the US are as follows:

* Non-serious symptoms: 162,977 people (92.7%)
* Serious symptoms: 10,448 people (5.9%)
* Deaths: 2,391 people (1.4%)

Commonly experienced non-serious symptoms included headache, fatigue, fever, and skin rash.

Serious symptoms commonly experienced included shortness of breath, high fever, and chest pain.

The majority of deaths occurred in the 60-year-old and older age group, with the most deaths occurring on the first and second days after vaccination.

This research report emphasizes the need for a good vaccination surveillance system to provide data for policymakers, vaccine manufacturers and providers, medical personnel, and to educate the public about the safety of Covid-19 vaccination.

(Also read: Global Covid-19 Vaccine Stock Dominated by AstraZeneca)